OMAHA, Neb. — Connor Noland was sensational on the mound and his teammates’ bats exploded, helping Arkansas open the College World Series with a dominant victory.
The right-hander kept his pitch count down and worked into the eighth, while the offense pounded out a season-high 21 hits en route to a 17-2 shellacking of No. 2 Stanford at Charles Schwab Field.
It was the most runs the Razorbacks have ever scored in Omaha, surpassing the 11 they had in a win over Texas in 2018, and their largest margin of victory in the College World Series. It more than doubled their seven-run wins over Kent State in 2012 and Arizona in 1979.
“I thought we played just a fantastic game,” head coach Dave Van Horn said. “I mean, (it) started on the mound with pitching — outstanding, a lot of strikes. Defense behind him was outstanding as well. … And offensively swung the bat extremely well up and down the lineup.”
As good as Noland was, though, Arkansas didn’t need very much run support. Coming off back-to-back stellar outings in the Stillwater Regional and Chapel Hill Super Regional, he turned in yet another ace-like start.
In 7 2/3 innings, Noland was charged with two earned runs on six hits and one walk. He notched just one strikeout, but was incredibly efficient and helped get the Razorbacks win the winner’s bracket.
“I don't think it's the best I've seen him,” Van Horn said. “He's had maybe a little better stuff a couple of times, but as far as competing, the temperature, the stage we're on, you add all that up, and probably nothing's been better.”
What made the outing particularly impressive was that efficiency. Noland retired Stanford in order five times in the first seven innings and was at just 66 total pitches heading into the eighth.
The low pitch count was aided by the Cardinal’s aggressiveness at the plate. He consistently forced ground outs and fly outs, getting 11 of the former — including two double plays — and nine of the latter.
“I knew they were going to swing the bat,” Noland said. “They're an aggressive team, they like to put the ball in play. We had the wind blowing in. I get a lot of ground balls normally.
“I just stuck to the plan. They're very aggressive. Didn't get a lot of two-strike counts. They just put the ball in play, and I let the defense work behind me.”
None of Stanford’s first 14 batters, spanning the first four innings, saw more than three pitches. In the end, only six of 28 batters saw a fourth pitch in a single at bat. The longest plate appearance of the day was a 10-pitch battle with Brock Jones, which Noland eventually won with his lone strikeout.
That at bat was longer than any of Noland’s four previous innings, which required only 7, 5, 7 and 9 pitches after a 12-pitch first inning.
“It's tough to kind of rein back your offense when you haven't been a take team for most of the year,” Stanford head coach David Esquer said. “It was strange to see how quickly within three pitches he was getting us out.”
The only blemish through his first seven innings actually came on his third pitch of the game. He left a fastball a little over the plate and Jones got just enough of it to send it into the left field bullpen for his 21st home run of the season.
From that point on, Arkansas was able to field almost anything Stanford put in play.
“He did a really good job just staying in the zone,” Jones said. “He has good stuff, but he threw a lot of strikes. We hit it right at guys and a lot of times that's baseball. … They had really good defense today and he was able to pound the zone.”
So far this postseason, Noland is 3-0 in his three starts, allowing just three earned runs in 21 1/3 innings. Those outings have lasted 7, 6 2/3 and 7 2/3 innings respectively, preserving the Razorbacks’ bullpen for the rest of the tournament.
“He sets the tone for the whole weekend,” Van Horn said. “For him to pitch like he's pitched in Game 1 and give us a chance to rest our guys and feel good about using our bullpen…three times in a row, it's been big.”
Here are several other key takeaways from Saturday’s win over the Cardinal…
Fifth-Inning Breakthrough
After each team scored in the first, Arkansas and Stanford were locked in a 1-1 tie for four innings.
Things changed in the fifth, though. Brady Slavens and Cayden Wallace hit back-to-back singles to start things and then, after Michael Turner struck out, Chris Lanzilli delivered the biggest hit of the game.
Playing on his 24th birthday, the graduate transfer from Wake Forest crushed a 1-1 pitch into the left field bleachers for a three-run home run to put the Razorbacks on top 4-1. The 389-foot blast — his ninth of the season and 51st of his career — left the bat at 106 mph and with a 32-degree launch angle.
Arkansas wasn’t done. Reliever Ryan Bruno inherited runners on the corners and both quickly came around to score. His first pitch was wild, allowing Robert Moore to scamper home from third, and Zack Gregory drove in the fifth run of the inning with a two-out single.
Hogs chase Pac-12 POTY
Named an All-American by multiple outlets and selected as the Pac-12 Pitcher of the Year, Alex Williams has struggled in the postseason and that continued Saturday in Omaha.
The right-hander flirted with danger for much of the afternoon and, after escaping it for the most part, the Razorbacks finally made him pay in the aforementioned big fifth inning.
Lanzilli’s three-run blast followed by a Moore single forced the Cardinal to turn to their bullpen. When the dust settled, Williams was charged with five earned runs on eight hits and two walks in 4 1/3 innings.
“He didn't come out of the gate strong, but he battled and found a little bit of a groove,” Esquer said. “And then just came down to that one pitch where, hey, their guy just beat him. Lanzilli hits that change-up.”
It was the ace’s fourth straight outing in which he failed to get through four innings. Beginning in the Pac-12 Tournament, Williams has given up 20 earned runs in 15 innings this postseason. That’s led to his ERA ballooning from 1.67 to 3.20.
Offensive Explosion
Making the tough outing by Williams even worse was the fact that he supplied the Razorbacks with some potential bulletin board material during Thursday’s media day.
It was a statement that he seemingly immediately regretted and his coach tried to backtrack later in the interview, but the words were already out there: I take our offense over their's any day. I think we've got them.
Two days later, Arkansas pounded out the most runs and hits ever in its 11 College World Series appearances, with the 21 hits being the most ever since the event moved to its current home — Charles Schwab Field, formerly known as TD Ameritrade Park — in 2011.
“It didn't add much motivation,” Lanzilli said. “Coach Van Horn has been saying, ‘Stay on us.’ We're all about us the past few weeks. And we've been hot the whole time. It's been working. We don't think about what they think. We think about what we're doing and what we're thinking.”
Whether or not they actually used the comment for motivation, the Razorbacks jumped on Stanford right out of the gate.
Braydon Webb crushed the first pitch of the game 103 mph off the bat. It nearly left the park, but instead hit off the top of the wall in right and bounced away for a leadoff triple, setting up Brady Slavens’ sacrifice fly that gave Arkansas an early 1-0 lead.
“That ball was smoked,” Lanzilli said. “The wind was blowing in. Hit a ball off the wall, lead-off, gets the game going and brings us energy, obviously, so it was huge.”
Although the Cardinal quickly answered with Jones’ leadoff home run and it stayed tied for four innings, the Razorbacks had only one inning in which it failed to get at least one base runner.
All of that traffic eventually resulted in the aforementioned fifth inning, as well as crooked numbers in the seventh, eighth and ninth innings.
By the time Stanford finally recorded the 27th out, all nine of Arkansas’ starters had multiple hits and seven of them had at least one RBI.
“As the game went on, obviously you've got to be able to stay in the tournament if you're going to have a chance to move on once the game gets a little spread (out), see if maybe you can score some runs behind some of your back-line pitching,” Esquer said. “Unfortunately we weren't able to hold them along the way.”
In seven NCAA Tournament games, the Razorbacks have a .325/.432/.544 slash line. Their .976 OPS is 125 points higher than what they posted in the regular season, despite six of the seven games being against top-10 opponents. That offensive production has translated to 9.9 runs per game.
“Offensively, I've seen us hit the ball in the middle of the ball a lot more, advance runners, move runners around, use the whole field,” Van Horn said. “We had a bunch of backside hits today, sac fly. I mean, we're running a pretty good offense right now.”
Other Tidbits
~The announced attendance of Saturday afternoon’s game was 24,337. It’s impossible to know exactly how many were Arkansas fans, but the crowd definitely had a pro-Razorback feel. “At first we were wondering which fans were ours because they were all wearing red,” Lanzilli said. “When the game started we sure heard them. So it was awesome. The place was packed.”
~Webb’s leadoff triple was the Razorbacks’ first triple since the second game of their doubleheader against UAPB back on April 12. They had 10 in the first 32 games of the season, but none in the last 30.
~Included in the late-inning onslaught was a two-run home run by Wallace. It was his team-leading 16th home run of the season, breaking a tie with Webb and Slavens, and the 30th of his two-year career.
~Arkansas turned a pair of double plays Saturday — a 6-4-3 in the first inning and a 5-4-3 in the fifth inning — to give them 56 for the season. That is tied for fourth nationally.
~Despite struggling at the plate for most of the season, Robert Moore reached base in each of his first five plate appearances. He walked three times and went 2 for 3 with a double. “Even his groundout advanced two runners with no outs, so it was a very productive at-bat,” Van Horn said. “If we can keep him going, it's big.”
~The first guy Arkansas turned to out of the bullpen was super senior Kole Ramage, who recorded the final out of the eighth inning after allowing one of his two inherited runners to score. It was his 93rd career appearance, moving him ahead of Kevin Kopps and into second on the UA all-time list. He trails only Phillip Stidham, who made 105 appearances between 1989-91.
~A foul ball by Turner in the fifth inning happened to hit home plate umpire Chris Coskey just right where it shattered ESPN’s ump cam.
~Among the fans in attendance Saturday were men’s basketball coach Eric Musselman and former baseball coach Norm DeBriyn.
Up Next
With the win, Arkansas moves into the winner’s bracket and will face the winner of Auburn-Ole Miss at 6 p.m. CT Monday.
The Razorbacks won two of three games against each team during the regular season, taking down the Tigers on the road and beating the Rebels at Baum-Walker Stadium.
